Ignore price noise; Bitcoin adoption is flourishing everywhere.

Despite the weak performance of Bitcoin’s price over the past year, the adoption curve tells a completely different story.

Written by: River

Translated by: Chopper, Foresight News

Although Bitcoin’s price has fallen 50% from its all-time high, its popularity continues to grow, just not reflected in the price. The following eight adoption trends may surprise you.

Institutions are buying Bitcoin at record speeds

By 2025, various institutions will have accumulated a total of 829,000 BTC, including corporations, governments, funds, and ETFs.

Importantly, these institutions represent millions of ordinary investors who are first getting involved with Bitcoin through brokerage accounts, pensions, sovereign funds, and corporate balance sheets.

Who is selling Bitcoin to them?

In 2025, the main sellers are long-term holders and whales—early participants who completed their positions years ago and are now gradually selling in deeper, more liquid markets. If this trend continues, institutions could hold most of the circulating supply of Bitcoin within ten years, but currently, individuals still control about two-thirds of the supply.

They ultimately set the marginal price at which institutions can build positions. Institutional entry does not replace individual holdings but expands the overall market access. Many current ETF holders are likely to become self-custody users in the future.

Investment advisors have been net buyers for 8 consecutive quarters

Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) are the largest investor group globally, managing approximately $14.6 trillion in client assets. Since the launch of Bitcoin ETFs in 2024, they have just begun to allocate. Even in the early stages, their activity has been very proactive:

Over the past two years, RIAs have invested about $1.5 billion per quarter into Bitcoin ETFs, with no quarter showing net sales.

Bitcoin adoption among RIAs is very common: 29 of the top 30 RIAs in the US have allocated to Bitcoin, but their average position is very small, at just 0.008%.

60% of top US banks are building Bitcoin products

Following a more favorable regulatory environment in the US, banks can now custody Bitcoin and offer Bitcoin-related products to clients.

Corporate adoption rate to grow 2.5 times by 2025

By 2025, corporations will become the largest buyers of Bitcoin, mainly driven by crypto treasury companies.

Apart from dedicated crypto treasury firms, many large corporations are quietly and modestly increasing their Bitcoin holdings.

This type of corporate adoption is expected to become widespread among S&P 500 constituents in the coming years.

Merchant adoption rate to grow 74% by 2025

The number of US businesses accepting Bitcoin payments has tripled, with global usage increasing by 74%. Companies like Steak n Shake have demonstrated that Bitcoin payments can reduce transaction costs and increase profits.

Most of these companies are small to medium-sized and do not publicly disclose their Bitcoin strategies. River has served over 3,000 companies across various industries and has witnessed the fastest growth in adoption among small private firms.

Lightning Network to grow 300% by 2025

It is estimated that the Lightning Network currently processes over $1.1 billion in transactions per month. Growth mainly comes from natural adoption by exchanges and merchants.

Five new sovereign countries hold Bitcoin

By 2025, five more countries will become Bitcoin holders, including two sovereign wealth funds (Luxembourg and Saudi Arabia) and one central bank (Czech National Bank).

These countries acquire Bitcoin through official mining, direct purchases by central banks or funds, ETFs, donations, confiscations, and hacker recoveries.

Additionally, since Afghanistan in 2022, no country has banned Bitcoin for four years. Clearly, embracing Bitcoin aligns with the best interests of nations.

Bitcoin is no longer “too volatile”

Bitcoin has continued a decade-long trend of decreasing volatility, approaching the levels of gold and the S&P 500.

Why is this important? It signifies that Bitcoin is being viewed as a mature asset class. Lower volatility reduces the entry barrier for risk-averse capital.

In the long term, this will open the floodgates for larger pools of capital. The last bull market proved that Bitcoin attracted more capital in three years than in all previous history combined.

Looking ahead

Despite the weak price performance over the past year, the adoption curve tells a completely different story. Current adoption may not cause the price to skyrocket tenfold overnight, but in many ways, it is more meaningful.

Every year, trust in Bitcoin among individuals, businesses, institutions, and sovereign nations deepens because it continues to prove itself as the world’s only scarce, immutable digital currency. We expect that in the coming years, Bitcoin adoption will not only continue its current trend but also accelerate significantly.